Why ‘Yellowstone’ Season 4 Could Be Biggest Yet for Good Country

Random Notes 32 Comments

The fourth season of the Paramount Network’s neo-Western Yellowstone starring Kevin Costner and created by Taylor Sheridan is finally set to premier on November 7th. And along with it, you can also expect a big boost for the independent country artists and songs that will surely be featured throughout the series, just as we’ve seen in the past three seasons of the show.

But this upcoming season just might be even bigger, and the most important yet. When Yellowstone first premiered in June of 2018, it was a summer series—meaning something networks put together to backstop their programming when television gets the lowest ratings of the year since folks are outside, on vacation, and generally paying less attention to what’s on the boob tube.

But after the overwhelming ratings success of the first three seasons, Paramount delayed Season 4, and now has it as the cornerstone of their winter programing. This only makes sense after the ratings bonanza the show has experienced, even during the summer. The first two seasons of the show saw ratings from about 1.89 million viewers, to about 2.8 million viewers for the debut episode and the finale of Season 2—not bad at all for a summer series these days.

But Season 3 was in a whole other realm. 4.23 million people tuned into the season debut, and 5.16 tuned in for the finale, while the show kept a weekly audience well over three million. These days, that’s a blockbuster, and the ratings are likely to go even higher now that it’s moved to a winter slot.

And don’t think for a second that the success of Yellowstone hasn’t been a factor in the continued success we’ve seen from certain independent artists over the last couple of years.

Along with Ryan Bingham who plays a recurring character in the series, and Whiskey Myers who didn’t just get the band’s music placed in the series, but actually appeared in a scene in Season 1, if you wonder how artists such as Tyler Childers, Colter Wall, Zach Bryan and others just seem to continue with their surprising success, the appearance of their music in this series has certainly played a role, especially since fans of the show don’t just watch Yellowstone, the consume it, and every part of it, and go back to watch episodes again and again. Yellowstone has groupies, and has created its own little cultural phenomenon.

Along those lines, it was announced in that a prequel spinoff of the series called 1883 will debut starting on December 19th starring Sam Elliot, and none other that Tim McGraw and Faith Hill. We’ll have to see if Tim and Faith have any acting chops, just as we’ll have to see if the new series features the same suite of cool music as Yellowstone. One can only hope.

There’s also another planned spinoff of the series called 6666 that’s supposed to be set at the present-day Four Sixes ranch in Texas, but there’s been no definitive confirmation that production has moved forward with that particular series at this point.

But even if those two series don’t give the same boost Yellowstone has given to cool country music, Season 4 most certainly will. And along with the drama of the Dutton family, folks will be following along as we watch some of our favorite and most deserving artists receive the audience of millions their music deserves, and mainstream country radio and awards shows just refuse to deliver.

And just as gracious as the series is to great artists, they’re also often ahead of the game. Before most were making a big deal about Lainey Wilson in country music, Yellowstone featured her music twice during Season 3.

If you want to see what kind of music the show features, you can check out to soundtracks for Season 1, Season 2, and Season 3.

– – – – – – – – – – –

Yellowstone centers around the famous American National Park and the conflicts that arise between the shared borders of a large cattle ranch, an Indian reservation, land developers, and the park itself. The show’s creator Taylor Sheridan is originally from Texas, and made a name developing Sons of Anarchy, as well as the movie Hell or High Water, both of which featured lots of independent and classic country music as well. Sheridan is often given credit for revitalizing the modern Western. Yellowstone‘s music supervisor is Andrea von Foerster.

© 2024 Saving Country Music

, , , , , , , , ,